Busca, Vísteme: ¡Mala Combinación! (Browse, Dress Me: Mismatch!)
Feb / Mar 2020
Fuego
Av. del Taller 22
Mexico City
Left: Nicole Chaput, Five of Pentacles, 2019. Oil on Canvas
53 x 46 cm
Right: Israel Urmeer, figure of a bat, 2020. Foamy (goma EVA), epoxy resin, markers, glitter 57 x 48 cm
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
El Inventario de Mi Cara, 2020 (detail)
Installation view
Front: Israel Urmeer, When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020. Foamy (goma EVA), epoxy resin, markers, glitter 280 x 160 x 8 cm
Installation view
Installation view
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
When I grow up I want to be Batman, 2020 (detail)
Nicole Chaput, Caradescarada (Part of Las Tres Somos unas Perras, entonces no hay que ser unas perra la una con la otra series), 2020. Oil on Canvas 45 x 38 x 8 cm
Installation view
Israel Urmeer
Top: BatiSignal D:, 2020. Foamy (goma EVA), epoxy resin, markers, glitter 35x 45 cm
Bottom: BatiSignal <3, 2020. Foamy (goma EVA), epoxy resin, markers, glitter 2020 35x 40 cm
Installation view
Nicole Chaput, Putting the Cat to Sleep, 2019. Oil and glitter on canvas. 36 x 46 cm
Nicole Chaput, Handles, 2020. Foamy (goma EVA), styrofoam ball, epoxy resin. 6 cm circumference
Installation view
Installation view
BatiSignal Foamy, 2020 (detail)
Installation view
Photos: Renata Cruz Lara
All images courtesy of the artists and space.
Browse…
This is not an anti-acne campaign, an advertisement for millionaires who attend to public justice, or about pop stars embodying the decay of the 2000’s This is the story of a body who has been an accomplice and a victim of the obscene references that reinforce the visual forms of the hero and the villain. Here, the figures are the word that articulates good versus evil. It is a case study of a painting, a crossfire of two searches that meet in their attempt to access the pictorial object through a shiny and flexible figuration. In her depictions of the body, Chaput references dolls from her childhood, memories, high fashion and its interaction with pop culture to explore her desires and participation as a consumer. This is displayed on the skin of her works as a mix between delicate makeup and an alarming skin disease that cannot be healed. Her characters nod to personal narratives that are symptomatic of social expectations that are worn and carried by the body. Urmeer focuses his search on the character of Batman, who embodies a hostile economic order. The figure of Batman is used as way of tracing cultural trauma dealing with disparities that is evidenced through the consumption of brands that will provide some access to the privilege this figure encompasses. Batman’s heroism is held by the objects that work as accessories to his fortune, sealing the package of a bat who is immediately labeled as a cultural idol.
Dress Me…
These paintings are crystalized through an accumulation of longing that examines how the body is trained to be articulated through accessories and expansions from very early on. What is shown and what is concealed? The costume, suit and makeup are the rules, the price and the punishment of the game. The applications that slide through the painting support dress the canvas for the viewer to undress: the eye immediately implicates the body as the paint’s handling channels a muscular memory related to dressing up and playing. Nicole and Israel both battle with a structure and surface that is maintained and interrupted as is the body and its suit. The limits between skeleton and skin, stretcher and support are erased. In Urmeer’s paintings the support and the figures are made of the same material: the ground is the figure and the figure is the ground. While Chaput’s paintings do have a trace of what is skin and what is structure, these two are wrestling to push the other out.
Mismatch!
We want to be turned into real dolls. This suit does not fit me, and it does not fit, you, either. What are the secrets held inside our closets, what happens when the body and the suit are turned inside out? The skin is too tight and the suit is too loose- why?